The Sad Discovery Made In Poltergeist Star Heather O'Rourke's Autopsy Report

Posted by Arica Deslauriers on Saturday, May 18, 2024

According to Heather O'Rourke's death certificate, she died from a tragic combination of an acute bowel obstruction, suspected septic shock, and cardio-respiratory arrest on February 1, 1988, just a few weeks after her 12th birthday. The Associated Press reported three days after she died that one doctor said the young actress' sudden death was "distinctly unusual," because the issue that caused the bowel obstruction was believed to have been a birth defect which would cause nausea, vomiting and severe abdominal pain, but said O'Rourke never experienced those symptoms. Yet that seems unlikely because according to Biography, O'Rourke was misdiagnosed with Crohn's Disease in 1987. 

Regardless, O'Rourke died at Children's Hospital in San Diego after 36 hours with the bowel obstruction, six hours of septic shock, and 30 minutes in cardio-respiratory arrest, per the death certificate. O'Rourke's manager told the AP, ″It's weird. She was completely healthy Saturday, they thought she had the flu on Sunday, and she was dead on Monday.″

In May of 198, The Los Angeles Times reported that O'Rourke's mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her daughter's doctors for misdiagnosing O'Rourke, whose real cause of death was only discovered after she died. According to The Los Angeles Business Journal, O'Rourke died from Intestinal Stenosis, which she was born with, but which could have been treated with surgery if only they had known, likely saving the girl's life. The lawsuit was settled out of court.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCAlGpvbG9fqbWmedKam2acmaiwsMLEq7BmpZGZsm61zWanqKSkmr%2Boscisq2arpJa%2FbrTEmquhnaJivLO71KuinqtdlsK1u8%2BssGaqlaW8s8CO